Strong Hearts

Today at Church we discussed "Righteous Living in Perilous Times"  (the last chapter/lesson from the Teaching of the Presidents of the Church: George Albert Smith manual). It was a wonderful lesson, and very timely considering the recent tragedy in Connecticut, the hearts and minds of everyone in the class had been focused on the pain and heartache associated with the horrible things that happen at times in this world.

I found myself struck with a thought, two thoughts really- These are the times that try men's hearts, these are the times when men's hearts will fail them. (I know that I am combining two thoughts from two different sources AND that the actual quote is "Soul" instead of heart in the first part, but my mind said heart and it goes very well with the rest of my thoughts- so bear with me) SO- I'm listening and it keeps playing over and over in my head -These are the times that try men's hearts, these are the times when men's hearts will fail them, and then another thought popped in my mind. When I was in the hospital last summer, after my 3rd surgery of the year, my nurses (as good nurses always do) checked my vitals regularly. But this time was different from other times I've been in the hospital, this time my nurses were concerned about my heart rate and my blood pressure. They would take my blood pressure and then talk to each other and take it again. They felt that both readings were too low. I asked the doctor if I should worry about that, he quickly said that he wasn't worried because I had the heart of a runner. I had a strong heart. Strong hearts pump well, and so they don't have to pump as much (thus the lower heart rate.....I have no idea about lower blood pressure though, but we won't worry about that too much right now....back to the story).

So, I have a strong heart. Why? Because I have been trying my best to exercise. I run 3 times a week and I try to do some kind of cross training twice a week. It worked really well a in 2011, for the first 6 months of this year not so much, but anyway you look at it, that exercise has been good to my heart. Why am I talking about exercise? Because these are the times that try our hearts, these are the times when our hearts might fail us. When I thought that I wasn't thinking about our physical hearts, I was thinking about our spiritual hearts, our souls. How can we strengthen our hearts so that, not only can we survive these times, but thrive in these perilous times. The answer, I believe, is that we must exercise our faith in our Savior Jesus Christ. We need to exercise our trust in him and his ability to lead us on a safe path. Life will not be easy. This world is not going to get any better. Horrible things will happen. We will feel pain and anguish, BUT if we have exercised our faith and trust and followed our Savior, when the hard times hit, our hearts will not fail us and we will be able to help those around us.

So those were my thoughts today, I thought I'd share.